The DriveIn
by Krrimarte
Summary: A humourous event that could have taken place right before MR3.


_**The Drive-In**_

_**By**_

_**Krrimarte**_

"_**So... You watch a box. For hours at a time...And there's nothing in the box that you're watching??"**_

"_**Well, there are pictures on the box. Not on them... well, sort of... It's a lot of fun really." **_

"_**And you call this what, again?" **_

"_**TV. Sometimes, the smart people call it television." **_

"_**So even your smart people waste their time staring at a box?" **_

" _**(sigh) Yeah... Pretty much"**_

We'd been riding in the "shaggin' wagon" for a while now and my butt was starting to go numb from lack of movement. I needed to do something, anything but drive for the rest of the day. "Max, I need a break. It's getting dark and my leg is falling asleep." I hated how much that sounded like I was whining.

She sighed. "We can't just pull over. Somebody is bound to notice a van with a bunch of kids in it. We have to keep moving."

Surprisingly, Nudge stepped in to save me. "What if we went somewhere where we would blend in. I mean a parked car with a bunch of kids in it?" She asked.

"Like where?" Max said sarcastically.

"A drive-in." She said excitedly.

"A what?" Oops, now I can't pretend that I knew that all along.

"It's a movie theater that you watch while you're in your car." Nudge said excitedly. "I looked it up on the net. Nobody would notice us, we could get out and walk around a bit, and they have a concession stand." She rattled out.

Max rolled her eyes. She sighed and said, "Fine." On the inside, I was cheering, but on the outside I was trying to slap my leg back into sensation. It worked... ow. I'm sure I'll have an angry bruise there in the morning.

Twenty minutes later, Nudge was giving me directions to this place. I pulled up to what appeared to be a vacant lot with several white walls around it. "Are you sure this is the place? It doesn't look like a theater to me."

"Yup, that's it. I even have a picture here. They project the movie onto the walls once it's dark out. Does the stereo in this thing work?" Nudge asked.

"Why?" I asked, somewhat afraid of her response.

"Because they broadcast the audio on an AM channel." Nudge added. She sounded excited. I shook my head and inched forward as the car ahead of me moved up. I could see that a man in a booth was flashing a light into her car, supposedly counting for admissions and handed her some tickets. The woman handed him money and he made change.

"Max, do you have any cash on you? I don't think that they're going to take the Maxercard." I said.

Max sighed and reached into her pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. "How much do we need?" She asked.

I looked up at the sign. "5 for children under age 10, and 10 for adults."

Iggy snorted in the back. "Ha! Told you I wasn't a child!"

"Shut up and act blind." I muttered.

Max heard me and shot me a dirty look. Great, just spiffy.

The car moved ahead and it was our turn at the booth. "Um, do you have any handi-cap discounts? One of my friends is blind."

"You brought a blind kid to a movie?" The man asked in disbelief.

"Hey! I'm blind, not deaf!" Iggy piped in.

"No, sorry, so how many of you are there?" He asked. I sighed.

"Four adults and 2 kids. Oh... and a dog." Max said, saving herself from another one of Total's spiels.

"That will be 50 dollars." He said, not bothering to check with the flash light.

Max handed me some bills and I forked them over to the dude. He ripped six tickets off of the roll in his hand. "Please park your vehicle in back two rows. It's large, so some of our patrons might not be able to see over it.

I nodded and moved into the lot. There were dozens of vehicles lining the area in rows, I drove to the very back and parked the van so it faced the white wall. "We're here." I said sarcastically.

"What are we watching, anyway?" Max asked.

"According to the site, they're playing Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End." Nudge replied.

Suddenly, Gazzy started in on the stupid song he'd seen on the net.

"I've got a jar of dirt, I've got a jar of dirt, I've got a jar of dirt, and guess what's inside it?!"

"STOP IT!" Nudge cried. "First the snot song, then the constipation song, now the jar of dirt... I can't take it anymore."

"Its songs like that, that make me wish I was deaf." Iggy groaned.

"Aw, but Ig, if you were deaf you couldn't hear things like this..." And he imitated a loud, juicy fart. That kid can be disgusting. I look over at Max, hoping that she'd do something. She rolled her eyes and got out of the van. I was surprised when she opened the back doors and pulled out a couple of chairs. "Me and Fang are going to take the lawn chairs, Nudge you take the driver's seat, Angel, Gaz, you guys can share the passenger seat."

I frowned. Nudge, in the drivers seat. Not good. Not good at all. "Max..." Then she gave me a dirty look, as if to say "If you want to sit in the oh-so comfy drivers seat, you might as well be driving." Okay, so she was a little miffed.

Max set up the chairs and handed me a wad of cash. "Get some hamburgers for everybody. " She said and took a seat. I groaned and headed towards the stand. I really hate dealing with people behind counters and she knows it. She's out to get me, I'm sure.

"How many hamburgers will..." I made a quick count, "sixty bucks get me?" I asked the kid behind the counter.

He rolled his eyes. "Uh... Sixty? Duh." Then the little jerk pointed to a sign that I had obviously not seen. "Hamburgers- $1!!!"

"Then give me sixty hamburgers." I said, trying not to get angry at the kid. It took forever for the order to be finished and when they handed the food over, somebody had to put a "Sold Out" sign over the board. I feel no guilt.

Walking back I hand the food to Max. "Happy?"

"No."

Go figure. I sigh and plop down in the highly uncomfortable lawn chair. The sun sets and the people start to quiet down.

"All right, it's now 7 o'clock and the sun is setting, We'll be starting our projection in just a few minutes. Tonight we're featuring Pirates of the Caribbean:At Worlds End. We still have a few minutes so you have enough time to come down to the concession stand and pick up some refreshments. I've just been informed that we no longer have the dollar-hamburger special. But we still have popcorn, hot-dogs and other delicious snacks."

Max reached over and slapped me in the arm. "OW!" I yelled. She gave me a dirty look and shook her head.

"I just want to remind you guys that our concession stand is what keeps this place running. We'd like to thank you all for coming. We'll be starting the movie in five minutes. A brief review of our rules; Larger vehicles must park in the back two rows so they won't hinder anybody else's ability to watch the movies. There are no glass bottles or alcoholic beverages allowed on the premises. Please keep all animals inside of your vehicle at all times. Parents and Guardians please keep an eye on your children."

This guy an his announcements were really starting to bug the crap out of me. Rolling my eyes I grabbed a burger out of the bag and started eating. Finally the movie starts. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as it starts getting interesting Max nudges me in the arm. "Can you go get a blanket, it's cold." I mentally freak out, but I get the stupid blanket.

It's really quiet, now. Just the sound of the movie blaring from a hundred car stereos. I feel something wet on my arm. I look up. It's starting to rain. Great!

Then the rain really picks up. It's kind of cool, because the movie's at a scene where they're in the middle of this gigantic storm. We can barely hear what's being said anymore, because we have the blanket over us and the rain is pounding a cadence on the portion above us.

"Ah yes, we're good and lost now!" the character announces.

"No shit." Max replies holding up her end of the blanket.

There's a long hilarious scene that we're both cracking up at. The water's still pouring around us. Finally the blanket, which is surprisingly cold, but still dry, starts to concave.

"Um... Max?" I ask

"Shh, it's hard enough to hear!" She exclaims, still laughing.

Suddenly the water spills over the edge and down the back of the blanket. I was smart enough to have the end of the blanket hang off the end of my chair, while Max decided to have it between her back and the canvas back of the chair. The water sloshed down our backs and down the back of Max's pants. She shot up, throwing the blanket over her shoulder. "CRAP! Screw this, I'm going in the van!" She exclaimed and ran into the back of the van. "Move it, Iggy! I'm soaked!"

Once I finally stop laughing I drag the chairs and the blanket to the end of the van, toss them in and climb over the back seat, closing the door behind me. 

"Ah man! Now we can't see!" Nudge whines. Then I have a stroke of genius.

"Nudge, let me in the driver's seat." I say. Nudge scurries and I make my way to the front. Looking around, I realize that our neighbors have left, deciding that it was raining to bad. I back the van up and park it so the large side windows are facing the screen. "How about now?"

"Fang, you're a genius." Nudge says and gives me a hug. Max crawls up to the front passenger seat.

"Nice idea." She says and continues watching the movie.

Once the movie ended, we were back on the road. Gazzy was replaying the movie verbatim in the characters voices, Nudge and Angel were acting some of the scenes out in the back.

My butt was no longer numb and we made our way to Louisiana, the state that road maintenance forgot.


End file.
